Kids Prefer Healthy Food
Many adults assume that kid's prefer junk food to healthy food. However a recent Harvard School of Public Health study compared students served standard school lunches with students whose nutritious lunches were prepared as part of the Chefs in Schools Initiative, and found that the second grade group ate more of their lunches.
The Chefs in Schools Initiative, launched by the nonprofit Project Bread, seeks to serve healthy, cost effective meals rich in fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean meats, and free of excess fats, sodium, and sugars. Project Bread is a leading anti-hunger organization in Massachusetts.
In their"Healthy Lunch Study" of more than 3,000 Boston middle-school lunch trays collected from schools participating in the initiative as well as schools serving standard lunch fare, the Harvard researchers revealed that kids preffered the Chefs in the Schools meals by a significant margin. For example, over three times as many students atte the vegetables in the Chefs in the Schools compared to the control group, and, among students who ate vegetables, students at the Chefs in the Schools ate 30 percent more of them.
For more information about this program see, www.projectbread.org
Don't forget to bring the family to the the screening of Two Angry Mom's at Sea Cliff School Wednesday evening at 7pm.
You can read the results of the nutrition survey here:-http://www.northshore.k12.ny.us/Foodserviceinfo/2010Results/DOC.PDF
Districtwide Nutrition Meeting minutes are available here:-http://www.northshore.k12.ny.us/Foodserviceinfo/2010minutes/Minutes_of_2-24-10%5B1%5D.pdf
Great point! The Berkeley school system found the same thing when they vastly improved the quality of their lunches -- participation rates ultimately increased. Moreover, researchers from UC Berkeley who did a three year evaluation of the changes Berkeley USD implemented found that students exposed to kitchen/garden education programs ate more fruits and vegetables both at school AND at home. To read the whole study, visit http://www.chezpanissefoundation.org/school-lunch-reform and click on their whitepaper Lunch Matters.
ReplyDeleteI'm in Seattle this weeks and it looks like every school has a garden.
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